As I sat in front of the TV, enjoying my morning cereal, something on the news kinda rubbed me wrong. It was a story about how spanking your kids should be against the law and how bad it is and so on. This really got on my nerves because I believe spanking your kids is a great part of raising your kid the right way. No, I am not a parent and I haven't raised any kids. But me and my sister were punished this way and we turned out fine.

Now don't get me wrong... there is a difference between spanking your kids and beating your kids. I'm not talking about the parents that punch their kids as a form of punishment. That's wrong and against the law. What's the big deal if a parent decides to use their hand or a belt to punish their own children for a wrong that they've committed? Would you rather let them get buy and have the justice system punish them when they're older?

The story on the news was talking about how the state of Massachusetts was close to making it illegal to spank your kids. They went on about how this is such a cruel form of corporal punishment. If you want to take measures to stop violence in the home, I'm all for that. But trying to make every family adhere to some ridiculous piece of legislation (if it passes) like this is insane.

Since football ended and the free time came, Dre and I decided to go visit Big D in Chicago. We went out Friday night and it was game time as soon as we arrived. We took one step into his place and we already had drinks in hand and getting ready to go out for the night. We hit up some new place and it was okay. It's too bad the Bamboo Club had to close down.

Saturday was the day though. Justin's wife surprised him with a little birthday get together. It was a group of his Chicago friends and some of us Cornell guys playing Whirlyball. For those that don't know, check out whirlyball.com. Natalie (Justin's wife) decided to make it Cornell vs Chicago. We dominated of course. Cornell won 6 or 7 games and Chicago won 1. I look forward to their attempt at a rematch. After some food and napping, we went out in downtown Chicago. We met up with Marie and Kelly. We were soon joined by Nate, Pat, Lauren, Becca P, and one of Pat's friends. Becca got us the hookup at a bar she used to work at. We got to skip the long ass line and sneak in through the back door. Leave all jokes at the door. We danced and drank and because of Pat, some us had an unwanted collar popping for short moments. Thank God for the 4 am closing time.

Thanksgiving was awesome. I can get used to 3 day work weeks. Once again, I went to the Hadenfeldt house for some good eats. We ate and managed to watch a portion of 3 games while napping for several hours. I think I caught up on a months worth of sleep in my 4 day weekend. I thank chef Mary. I know she appreciated my commercial-like gift of Miller Lite. I know I know. I'm good.

With no plans for Friday night and a pocket full of money, I figured I'd test my luck at the casino. I called up Flockhart and it was on. I made the trip with $110 in my wallet and I only planned on spending $100 at the blackjack table. In other words, I was willing to lose $100 while playing blackjack but I obviously wanted to beat the house and come home with some extra dinero. The first $50 seemed to go by fast. This was not the night to be playing blackjack. Those dealers had the hot hand like it was a freakin conspiracy. So I decided to take a break while I still had $50.

After my extended halftime, I returned to the table and had some luck. They switched dealers and this new chick dealt me two blackjacks in a row. Then out of nowhere, this other dealer comes to replace her. When the hell does a dealer leave the table after two hands. More importantly, why are they hating on me getting my money back? After a while, Riverside Casino was the proud owner of all of the $100.

As I left the blackjack table, an enticing slot machine was calling my name. "Ricky.... Ricky.... RICKY!" So I walked over to the quarter slot machine and put my last $10 in there. I'm glad I did. An hour and change later, I flipped that $10 into $120. At one point, I had over $140. So after all that losing and winning, I still came home a winner. I came home plus $10. Go me!